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bees x1000 posted:And Pitou is the most changed/humanized/moralized/goodinized of the royal guard at that point. Idk her headless body freaking out like a twitching insect was freaky as poo poo. That whole sequence was hard to watch.
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Mar 23, 2021 05:43
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Pitou is still a dangerous threat and if she'd survived everyone would likely have been extremely hosed it's worth mentioning. She has humanized quite a bit but her loyalty to her King is still paramount. She can show empathy and pity but Gon killing her did save some lives. It just gained him absolutely nothing on a personal level while costing him almost everything, and the lives he saved were basically by accident.
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Mar 23, 2021 06:14
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Marx Headroom posted:Idk her headless body freaking out like a twitching insect was freaky as poo poo. That whole sequence was hard to watch. It’s not really as bad as the rampant child murder but I don’t really think Gon vs Pitou isn’t meant to be comfortable to watch cause it’s a hosed up unnatural transformation and basically not even a fight, it’s a massacre, cause if Gon had been trying to finish her and not exact some hosed up catharsis revenge atonement he would have just cut her head off and been done with it.
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Mar 23, 2021 07:01
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ImpAtom posted:Pitou is still a dangerous threat and if she'd survived everyone would likely have been extremely hosed it's worth mentioning. She has humanized quite a bit but her loyalty to her King is still paramount. She can show empathy and pity but Gon killing her did save some lives. It just gained him absolutely nothing on a personal level while costing him almost everything, and the lives he saved were basically by accident. Pitou however was the most loyal to the King as a person, rather then as an ideal like how Pouf was. Pitou likely would have just respected whatever Meruem's wishes were. (Maybe she would have tried to save Merum's life with Dr Blythe, but there is a decent chance he would have sent Pitou away having figured out he was dying by that point.) Heck if one if Pitou had not become scared of Gon, or if Pouf had not tricked Pitou into thinking that Komugi was out of the invasion team's hands, the fight between Gon and Pitou probably would not have happened.
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Mar 23, 2021 07:16
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poo poo, if pitou had burned her life like gon did to save meruem she might have actually succeeded.
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Mar 23, 2021 07:19
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From my POV, Pouf is probably the most human of the Royal Guard. Although nowhere close to being 'good'. Ultimately, I feel like the 'humanising' arc that Youpi and Pitou appear to be on is intended to be illusory. Pitou never cares about Komugi at all as a person, only as something important to the King. There is also no real sincerity behind apologising to Gon, if anything it is intended just to destabilise him. Pitou is planning the entire time to kill him and stalls for time to heal their injuries. They are portrayed pretty much as entirely amoral throughout. They never take a single action that isn't either to amuse themselves personally (generally fighting and turning people into puppets) or for the King's benefit. Youpi probably comes closest to being 'good', but their progress is stripped away in an instant when reconnecting with the King. All three are slaved to the King and their ant instincts. The whole pre-battle conversation with Meruem and Netero basically outlines the idea that true reconciliation with the Ants in general isn't possible, their human fancies, morality and proclivities can melt away in an instant due to their fundamental nature, which is why he never even considers bargaining and talking things out (that and the terms are a bit, uh, bad).
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Mar 23, 2021 11:31
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Turin Turambar posted:It's clearly inspired by the famous super saiyan Goku moment. That's kinda the point, Togashi took a shonen trope and did his own, twisted, improved version. He established before that nen depends a lot on pure feeling and psyche and he established the pledge system, so it was less of a arbitrary powerup, and he made it more dramatic and with consequences. While I won't deny it's a very powerful moment, I think you're making too big a deal of it. It's a dark twist on a classic shonen trope, yes, but it's definitely "not how it's done" or even "improved". In most shonen stories the tonal clash would be horrible, for one.
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Mar 23, 2021 16:32
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Jeza posted:There is also no real sincerity behind apologising to Gon, if anything it is intended just to destabilise him. Pitou is planning the entire time to kill him and stalls for time to heal their injuries. This is not true. Pitou apologizes to him saying Kite can't be healed then starts healing their arm, and after doing so, apologizes to Gon again before stating that they are going to kill Gon for the King's sake. Pitou also lets Gon get his emotions out before making any moves against him.
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Mar 23, 2021 19:07
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Kyte posted:While I won't deny it's a very powerful moment, I think you're making too big a deal of it. It's a dark twist on a classic shonen trope, yes, but it's definitely "not how it's done" or even "improved". In most shonen stories the tonal clash would be horrible, for one. Most shonen already have that tonal clash anyway. As most of them deal with loss of some kind but once the transformation takes place the loss is regulated to an afterthought. I think Hunter is one of the few shonen that has a consistent tone about it really. That and his previous work Yu Yu. Though that went in a more depressed way instead of angry
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Mar 23, 2021 19:57
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Sorry to bump this again (I don’t think any of us have any real hope at this point though), but I have a question that’s been bugging me for a while that’s probably been discussed at some point. What’s the point of Scissors? Besides being thematic to the whole Rock-Paper-Scissors thing, like in theory I could see it working as a deathblow, except A: it’s being used at 70% efficiency and B: Jajaken already lets Gon hit so far above his weight that anything hit by Rock is usually crippled to the point where it doesn’t even matter. I figure the answer is just “Gon’s kinda dumb so he didn’t think it through so well and refine it accordingly before he lost his nen” but there’s always a chance it’s properties are elaborated on in the volume releases or something. Which, would be nice to buy, except it hasn’t been on Amazon in like a year...
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Apr 8, 2021 03:23
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Last Celebration posted:Sorry to bump this again (I don’t think any of us have any real hope at this point though), but I have a question that’s been bugging me for a while that’s probably been discussed at some point. Scissors exists because Gon is like 14 and based his ability around a children's game. He only really needs to use the punch portion of his hatsu and uses paper mostly against Knuckles the one time. So yes "Gon's kinda dumb so he didn't think it through so well and refine it accordingly before he lost his nen" The properties of scissors are implied through basic transmutation, people can learn to shape their aura and applying a basic physical trait doesn't seem to be a super high level concept. Not unlike making aura hot like a sun or sticky like bum. Gon only makes his aura sharp and roughly shapes it into a wedge. YES, I still have hope but only because I've waited longer for manga where the artist had damaged his wrist so Togashi's older age doesn't daunt me.
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Apr 8, 2021 03:33
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Scissors has more range and gives him utility/mix up like when he fought the centipede.
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Apr 8, 2021 03:57
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Last Celebration posted:Sorry to bump this again (I don’t think any of us have any real hope at this point though), but I have a question that’s been bugging me for a while that’s probably been discussed at some point. It was always in a kind of weird place. The most useful I can remember it being was against one of the ants relatively early in the arc, since the ant had a ton of arms and could block Rock as it existed at the time; Scissors let him just cleave it in half instead. Otherwise it was probably mostly useful for making Jajaken more thematic as a whole and his affinity with it making it a more effective technique, because Nen.
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Apr 8, 2021 04:01
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Since this got bumped up, apparently HBO Max has all of the anime dubbed. I have Hulu too, where the dub awkwardly ends in the middle of York New, and the sub awkwardly ends like 3 episodes into the Chimera Ants. I'm dropping into some of these later episodes, watching some cool moments with voices I've never heard before.
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Apr 8, 2021 04:46
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scissors and paper were pointless and weak because gon hadn't really reached the point of developing his secondary nen affinities very far. they were going to be comparable to rock at some unspecified later date after a lot of training. except then the unstable child burned himself out by going on a mission he really had no business doing. whoops!
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Apr 8, 2021 05:15
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They mostly existed for utility, and so he could bluff opponents. He'd be a really bad matchup for someone like Welfin, for example, who was constantly overthinking every scenario.
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Apr 8, 2021 06:16
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:scissors and paper were pointless and weak because gon hadn't really reached the point of developing his secondary nen affinities very far. they were going to be comparable to rock at some unspecified later date after a lot of training. except then the unstable child burned himself out by going on a mission he really had no business doing. whoops! To be fair the adults let him join the mission he had no business joining, and really when you think about it it was basically a suicide mission even if they didn’t say it cause how could you possibly expect Gon/Killua to actually defeat Pitou. Distract long enough to get her away from the King yeah, but probably the most surprising part of the palace invasion is how few casualties were caused, even including everyone infected by Pouf’s radioactive scales.
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Apr 8, 2021 06:34
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Last Celebration posted:To be fair the adults let him join the mission he had no business joining, and really when you think about it it was basically a suicide mission even if they didn’t say it cause how could you possibly expect Gon/Killua to actually defeat Pitou. Distract long enough to get her away from the King yeah, but probably the most surprising part of the palace invasion is how few casualties were caused, even including everyone infected by Pouf’s radioactive scales. He is a Hunter. In that world, he is an adult.
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Apr 8, 2021 11:50
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and as shown many times throughout the series, he’s a remarkably strong hunter. Sure, he was no match for Pitou, but none of the Hunters actually straight up won their final Ant fights.
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Apr 8, 2021 14:26
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Hello, I began watching this series earlier this week and I am here because I would like to post about it. I did not see an anime thread, and I'm not super concerned with spoilers, so I'll probably just post my thoughts here. I assume you're all a thousand arcs ahead of me, so I'm not going to spoiler anything unless someone asks me to. I'm currently 47 episodes in and Kurapika just murdered the poo poo out of the Phantom Troupe big man. So far this series has had a strange relationship with pacing, it jumps back and forth between what felt like a million episodes of 1v1 contests in the Trap Tower to just handwaving what feels like pretty large sections of time, and boy does it not seem to have the 'killing is fundamentally wrong and bad' ideology that a lot of other shounen has. When Killua murdered the serial killer guy with a smile on his face and Gon was basically just like 'Hey, good job, you won your fight!' I was quite surprised, and also now Kurapika has become an executioner of his personal justice. Not quite sure why Leorio exists at this point. The sort of power progression has really mirrored Jojos so far. They started with basic strength, went on to learn to control life force, and now they seem to be developing what are basically stand powers. Most of the characters seem fairly competent, or at least not stupid, which is refreshing. Again, Leorio really stands out here as someone who has contributed basically nothing and often makes situations worse. If he is supposed to be comic relief, he's not especially funny, and also there was the whole thing where he sold out everyone to feel up an incarcerated girl, so, uh, he can probably go in the trash bin. I have no idea if anyone cares to read my opinions, I know some people vicariously enjoy rewatches of other people, so I'll probably keep posting my thoughts. I assume I'm going to have to switch to the manga at some point? I don't mind and I probably will, but right now it makes for good viewing while I'm afk farming in PoE.
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May 14, 2021 22:46
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Is Leorio just comic relief? Yes and no. He gains a more prominent a role later on, but across the span of the anime he takes up less and less screen time as it goes. So if for whatever reason you hate him, I wouldn't worry about him being around much. He's mostly just present as an amiable side-character. Does he effectively contribute nothing to the team of four? Pretty much, if you're just looking at it from a simple power perspective - he's way weaker and probably just a drag. However, as a dramatis persona, Leorio is very important in the beginning. His personality, i.e. rash and compassionate is a pretty important counter-balance to 2x cool and level-headed + the kinda blank slate that is Gon. He contributes very little materially, but in terms of narrative, Leorio is very arguably the principal driving character. He is the reason they have to go back in the swamp, get hosed in Trick Tower, his incompetence creates half the storyline of the 3rd exam etc. Three overpowered people cruise through the Hunter Exams does not make for a compelling or interesting narrative.
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May 14, 2021 23:11
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leorio's time to shine is in an upcoming arc in the manga that will almost certainly never be made.
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May 14, 2021 23:16
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As far as pacing goes, up to right around where you are, the York New auction, the manga was the only version that did it right, in my opinion. The original anime adaptation added a lot of filler, and even original characters I believe. The second anime adaptation cuts and compresses a lot of content, so when it does take a breath for an episode it feels really out of place. And no need to switch to the manga. The anime ends at a very natural stopping point and the manga hasn't progressed much further than that point.
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May 14, 2021 23:16
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somebody didn't read the op  Bad Seafood posted:Leorio Paradinight is the best character and doesn't get to do nearly enough like seriously for real DARK CONTINENT WHEN TOGASHI?
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May 14, 2021 23:50
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CubeTheory posted:boy does it not seem to have the 'killing is fundamentally wrong and bad' ideology that a lot of other shounen has. When Killua murdered the serial killer guy with a smile on his face and Gon was basically just like 'Hey, good job, you won your fight!' I was quite surprised, and also now Kurapika has become an executioner of his personal justice. Most modern shonen tend to take cues from One Piece and Naruto and use death as a narrative device very sparingly, but HxH started in 1998, right in between those two, when characters dying in shonen was pretty much commonplace. But even then, Togashi's take on death and the morality of killing is very unique among his peers, as evidenced by things like Gon not batting an eye at his new bestie ripping a guy's heart out, or Kurapika's extremely calculated lifelong revenge quest, where he tells his first target "I can't stand this. It makes me sick," and then proceeds to continue killing him. Leorio is best boy.
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May 15, 2021 00:44
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oh jay posted:As far as pacing goes, up to right around where you are, the York New auction, the manga was the only version that did it right, in my opinion. Kind of curious as to why Togashi doesn’t just either officially cancel/end the manga due to his failing health or just get someone else to help him with it (for example, he is married to Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi after all)
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May 15, 2021 00:49
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Because he doesn't want to?
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May 15, 2021 00:54
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Clarste posted:Because he doesn't want to? Fair, just saying it’d probably be easier on him in his current condition but it’s his series.
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May 15, 2021 00:56
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we haven't heard anything about his condition or plans in two years or so. i figure if togashi was going to make a statement he would have by now.
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May 15, 2021 00:57
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He's too busy hanging out with George RR Martin to write.
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May 15, 2021 01:00
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True, it’s entirely possible the manga could just stop without warning and that’s that (as has been said, the anime provides a perfectly serviceable ending for the series so there’s no real need to read further if you don’t feel up to it)
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May 15, 2021 01:01
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The problem with the hiatuses is that each time the series comes back it’s so loving good. This arc has entire page long text walls describing how best to prepare breakfast cereal and it manages to be the best read in Jump every time a hiatus ends. I hate that this drat boat is my favorite arc.
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May 15, 2021 01:26
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I watched a few more episodes, up to the point where Gon and Killua were captured by the Phantom Troupe and then escaped. I think this show is at it's best when the characters are in absolutely unwinnable situations, it does tension pretty well, especially since it seems so willing to kill people. Also not a huge fan of Kurapika's "My power is all the powers", kind of strange that the first member of the group to develop a specific power got one that both breaks all the rules and is so strangely overpowered.
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May 15, 2021 01:41
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there's a wonderful, beautiful payoff for kurapika playing fast and loose with nen but it happens in the current arc of the manga, which is also unlikely to ever be completed.
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May 15, 2021 01:44
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Kurapika’s path to power is straight up suicidal, that’s kind of a big drawback
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May 15, 2021 01:47
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PringleCreamEgg posted:The problem with the hiatuses is that each time the series comes back it’s so loving good. This arc has entire page long text walls describing how best to prepare breakfast cereal and it manages to be the best read in Jump every time a hiatus ends. I hate that this drat boat is my favorite arc. Cereal and water is monstrous but yes, this arc is my favorite and the worst part is I re-read it a while back and figured out the answer to my big question; Who the gently caress is the silent majority user. It's so simple in hindsight it's Mushasho, the captain of the guard for Queen Swinko-Swinko[/url]. And it all makes sense when I remembered two details [spoiler]First, Woody the first victim in room 1014 was killed on the toilet, and then the same death happens to one of the guys in Kurapika's class. Second: each queen has at one spy place on them by a higher ranking queen. So suddenly it makes sense how the snakes got into room 1014 the first time, Mushasho planted Silent Majority on who is likely the spy from his group, Woody, sends both him and Silent into the room and as soon as he can he offs Woody. The reason he does this is because Silent Majority will kill him if he doesn't get at least one victim. He then goes on to target the remaining spies from the other queens and probably deactivated his ability afterwards rather than attempt to kill any of the hunters or the queen herself since they were always near her. Later on he is invited into the room for the nen lessons and would be in the ideal position to know the names of all the maids which is something noted in the narration for the user. Plus Swinko-Swinko has one other nen user in her group and herself told her son she was working on his winning the succession war. But the name of that guard was Tuffdy, the guy that choked Prince Momoze to death although in his case he was looking for a promotion rather than sticking with a weak prince. So years later and it all just kind of fits together and I wonder why I couldn't see it before. Likely because I was stuck on whether or not the snakes could actually travel through the vents before they drained someone dry.
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May 15, 2021 01:54
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TriffTshngo posted:Most modern shonen tend to take cues from One Piece and Naruto and use death as a narrative device very sparingly, but HxH started in 1998, right in between those two, when characters dying in shonen was pretty much commonplace. But even then, Togashi's take on death and the morality of killing is very unique among his peers, as evidenced by things like Gon not batting an eye at his new bestie ripping a guy's heart out, or Kurapika's extremely calculated lifelong revenge quest, where he tells his first target "I can't stand this. It makes me sick," and then proceeds to continue killing him. Naruto is actually a lot less sparing in that regard than most shonen manga, honestly. Four major protagonist character deaths off the top of my head, plus a lot of semi-sympathetic antagonists. The nobody-dies mentality is much more present in Fairy Tail and Bleach, for example. (Though even Fairy Tail has a handful; they just get overshadowed by all the contrived death fake-outs.) I can't think of many shonen manga quite as kill-happy as HxH, though (not counting things like Dragon Ball where there's an undo button). Maybe Twin Star Exorcists? Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 02:09 on May 15, 2021 |
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May 15, 2021 02:06
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CubeTheory posted:I watched a few more episodes, up to the point where Gon and Killua were captured by the Phantom Troupe and then escaped. I think this show is at it's best when the characters are in absolutely unwinnable situations, it does tension pretty well, especially since it seems so willing to kill people. Oh ho ho, my friend. You are going to love this show by the end. (I also thought Gon + Killua vs. The Troupe was amazeballs.)
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May 15, 2021 02:13
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Silver2195 posted:Naruto is actually a lot less sparing in that regard than most shonen manga, honestly. Four major protagonist character deaths off the top of my head, plus a lot of semi-sympathetic antagonists. The nobody-dies mentality is much more present in Fairy Tail and Bleach, for example. (Though even Fairy Tail has a handful; they just get overshadowed by all the contrived death fake-outs.) Naruto definitely has some deaths, but I think it only really feels that way compared to the stuff that came during/after it. It was pretty tame by the standards of when it began.
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May 15, 2021 02:35
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TriffTshngo posted:Naruto definitely has some deaths, but I think it only really feels that way compared to the stuff that came during/after it. It was pretty tame by the standards of when it began. I dropped Naruto shortly after the Rock Lee drunken fist fight vs. bone guy. And I remember a little while ago, I watched some fan content which was discussing Boruto and they offhandedly mentioned Neiji died. And I was like, "Neiji died!? And Naruto got married to best girl?! Looks like everything is coming up Hinata!"
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May 15, 2021 02:39
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